(276b) From Nanoscale Building Blocks to Functional Fibers

Smart fabrics that combine traditional clothing with functional devices are a topic of a growing field of research with a broad range of applications in areas including healthcare, sports and internet of things development. Two common approaches for producing smart fabrics are 1) to adhere fabricated devices on top of a pre-woven fabric, and 2) to develop devices in form of fibers that can be then integrated into large area textile. The latter approach allows us to combine fibers with different functionalities into a large area fabric showing a collective complex functionality. Functionality of the fibers can be tuned using a large library of nanomaterials as building blocks. Here, we propose a layer by layer assembly process to fabricate functional fibers. As an example, we will discuss fabrication of solution-processable, flexible, and wearable light emitting fibers with a potential to be incorporated into light-emitting fabrics.